CH #8 - BERGAMO: AS BEAUTIFUL AS MY HOME

- ‘How is your daughter-in-law dooooing?’

- ‘She’s fiiinee! Always on the front liiiine.’

- ‘ Please, do thank her on our behalf. Hurray for healthcare professionals!’

These are excerpts of dialogues yelled from one building to the other between my parents and their neighbours. 

They have a new routine, my parents: they walk up to the rooftop terrace, to stretch their legs and get some fresh air. They take turns with the other families living in the building. They open the door to the terrace wearing rubber gloves, and once out in the spring light, they stand there, observing the motionless, crystallised city below them.

Bed sheets drying in the evening breeze frame the Ronchi hills and Brescia Castle. Brescia would need Saints Jovita and Faustinus to appear again to chase the Coronavirus away. The patron saints of Brescia defended the city from the Milanese assault in 1438. 

Many are praying to the patron saints these days. 

And many are ready to override the rivalry between Bergamo and Brescia, which are neighbouring cities, in the name of solidarity uniting in pain. Astonishingly, even on the soccer field. 

The image of the army trucks in Bergamo, lined up in a funeral procession hurts, a lot, and will never be forgotten. 

I try to play it down, for the girls, I reassure them their grandparents are okay, that they spend their time on a terrace now, I joke. And I can perfectly imagine them, there, on the top, standing tall, as a lookout against the Tatars, guarding the urban desert. 

There are some entertaining, fascinating features about their new habit. And ample material for sociologists to research.

My parents tell me over the phone that other silhouettes have started to emerge on the surrounding rooftops. It’s gripping to recognise some of them and to kick off a conversation - a shouted one - weaving relationships with people who’ve always lived in our neighbourhood, living parallel lives to ours. 

Finding out in the obituaries that some of these people have passed makes you miss them, even if you never stopped to exchange pleasantries when coming across them. 

But you thought that if you want to do it, one day, you will always be able to do it. 

And just like that, our secret ambition to be immortal is instantly shattered. 

Trying to explain to my girls what is happening is not easy. They hear about chilling numbers in the news, or from phone calls carrying bad news. Two friends of their grandparents died this week. ‘ Were they old? Were they older than our grandparents?’ These are just a few of the questions we have to face. 

Small cracks creep into their childhood certainties. 

To help us out, music! It’s the appropriate moment to listen to Bergamo, one of the songs the band Pinguini Tattici Nucleari (see CH#3) added to their new album. Just a bit over a month ago, they were at the Sanremo Music Festival. It feels like a lifetime.

Bergamo - which is also the city the Penguins come from - is a love song. 

The lyrics remind me of my Francesca as if the song was partly about her. 

“ Come una vecchia foto di mia nonna / quando accompagnò mio nonno a fare il militare / tu sei speranza dentro agli occhi di chi resta / e capisce che ogni tanto nella vita devi solo aspettare ”.

“ Ricorda che sei bella come casa mia ”.

Like an old picture of my grandmother / when she accompanied my grandfather to the army / you are hope in the eyes of those who stay / and understands that sometimes in this life you only have to wait.

Remember that you are as beautiful as my home. 

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Noi che siamo Ombra is a short movie directed by Marco Santi (5e6 Production) about Saints Jovita and Faustinus.

1. L’Intervento dei santi patroni in difesa di Brescia assediata da Nicolò Piccinino è un affresco (220x330 cm) di Giandomenico Tiepolo, databile al 1754-1755 e collocato sulla parete sinistra del presbiterio della chiesa dei Santi Faustino e Giovita a Brescia.

2. L'Apparizione dei santi Faustino e Giovita in difesa di Brescia è un dipinto a olio su tela (230x275 cm) di Grazio Cossali, datato 1603 e conservato nella chiesa dei Santi Faustino e Giovita di Brescia, sulla controfacciata della navata destra. 

3. Thanks to Emanuele Galesi for “roof walking” video.